Hi, I seem to be having an issue with signal all of a sudden.  I get my Mavic Air at around 2500 ft away my signal drops off, when I stop forward motion the signal comes back at full strength, when I move forward again it drops.   I have made many flights in this same direction at over 6000 ft distance.   The flight area is up to a ridge flying over a forest @ 600-700 ft altitude.  Any ideas?  Mavic Air seems to work fine within the 2500 ft range.

Thanks
Brian

with wifi its harder to diagnose signal related issues because wifi is more sensitive to dropping in an out since it isnt as flexible with dropping data streams and partial data frames,  as other technologies are such as Occusync and Lightbridge.  could be anything from a new cell tower going online or some new wifi installation thats overlapping or has a large wifi bubble (outdoor antennas for wifi that pointing upwards and outwards are the bane of the mavic air/spark), or a public utility maybe using similar signal (hate this, power company locally started installing newer smart meters that use 2.45ghz)..etc etc.    and DJi doesn't make it any easier diagnosing Wifi related issues since they dont split the signal ratio of aircraft and remote to know if the interference is closer to the aircraft or the remote..and the interference bar graphics in the app is such a broken useless tool for wifi as sometimes doesn't even accurately represent interference and for me at-least doesn't work in flight to indicate if channel im on is really bad further out.... dji lets this fall on deaf ears :/  

some ideas you can test include disabling wifi on your phone (actually disabling it in settings), turning off bluetooth in settings..airplane mode..etc etc.. make sure aiming antennas correctly not crossing or pointing out down but rather 45 degree angle from the ground, changing channels of your drone not using auto mode... try 5.8Ghz on channel 157 (for example) or 2.4Ghz on channel 6 (for example)..

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-14 19:42
with wifi its harder to diagnose signal related issues because wifi is more sensitive to dropping in an out since it isnt as flexible with dropping data streams and partial data frames,  as other technologies are such as Occusync and Lightbridge.  could be anything from a new cell tower going online or some new wifi installation thats overlapping or has a large wifi bubble (outdoor antennas for wifi that pointing upwards and outwards are the bane of the mavic air/spark), or a public utility maybe using similar signal (hate this, power company locally started installing newer smart meters that use 2.45ghz)..etc etc.    and DJi doesn't make it any easier diagnosing Wifi related issues since they dont split the signal ratio of aircraft and remote to know if the interference is closer to the aircraft or the remote..and the interference bar graphics in the app is such a broken useless tool for wifi as sometimes doesn't even accurately represent interference and for me at-least doesn't work in flight to indicate if channel im on is really bad further out.... dji lets this fall on deaf ears :/  

some ideas you can test include disabling wifi on your phone (actually disabling it in settings), turning off bluetooth in settings..airplane mode..etc etc.. make sure aiming antennas correctly not crossing or pointing out down but rather 45 degree angle from the ground, changing channels of your drone not using auto mode... try 5.8Ghz on channel 157 (for example) or 2.4Ghz on channel 6 (for example)..

95% of the time I have my device in Airplane mode.  It's just weird that I've never had an issue up until a week ago, what puzzles me is when the signal drops off instantly as soon as I move the drone forward.  When I hover I have a strong signal.

Brian

Twistedlarch Posted at 1-14 19:51
95% of the time I have my device in Airplane mode.  It's just weird that I've never had an issue up until a week ago, what puzzles me is when the signal drops off instantly as soon as I move the drone forward.  When I hover I have a strong signal.

Brian

does this happen anywhere else?  

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-14 19:53
does this happen anywhere else?

I haven't had a chance to take it anywhere else since this issue.  Just before this issue started I flew over a neighborhood in the city, I got about 1500 ft away and ran into a lot of interference, my altitude was at around 150 ft.  Since then is when I noticed the signal issues around home.  I live on 5 acres and am surrounded by thousands of acres of Timber lands.  I have only 3 neighbors within a 1/4 mile radius.

Also, this evening I got a low battery warning "Only enough power to RTH" when I still hade 75-80% battery and only  about  2500 ft and closer.  And, the 180 pano function kept failing.  I put a new battery in  and the battery issue resolved but the pano feature failed 2 out of 5 attempts.  Kept telling me "capture failed due to Camera error".  I have no idea if these issues are related.

Brian

Twistedlarch Posted at 1-14 20:10
I haven't had a chance to take it anywhere else since this issue.  Just before this issue started I flew over a neighborhood in the city, I got about 1500 ft away and ran into a lot of interference, my altitude was at around 150 ft.  Since then is when I noticed the signal issues around home.  I live on 5 acres and am surrounded by thousands of acres of Timber lands.  I have only 3 neighbors within a 1/4 mile radius.

Also, this evening I got a low battery warning "Only enough power to RTH" when I still hade 75-80% battery and only  about  2500 ft and closer.  And, the 180 pano function kept failing.  I put a new battery in  and the battery issue resolved but the pano feature failed 2 out of 5 attempts.  Kept telling me "capture failed due to Camera error".  I have no idea if these issues are related.

well for the wifi related issues flying over a neighborhood or city area is obviously going to dramatically kill range because alot of wifi around and wifi bubbles reflecting around.. that seems normal, as does signal issues in dense wooded area like a timberland as again wifi is sensitive to errors in data which can get very technical but short answer is trees partially blocking signal means increase in error rate of data means decrease in useable bandwidth...  overall, sorta expected with wifi based systems, lesser issue with Occusync and lightbridge because they can use partial data frames and accept higher error rates.

2nd  you mentioned early as soon as you move forward signal is decreased...  do you mean literally the moment you move forward it drops signal quality and strength or a few hundred feet/thousand feet.  this is what i was curious about if the moment you move forward it drops signal this could mean have an issue with mavic air's antenna or antennas..   do you have the front landing legs folded down..?if folded up they are incorrectly polarized and can suffer a instant drop in signal..

finally as for battery...that you will have to grab that log file and submit it here for us to examine..  luckily alot of data with batteries to look at and log will or should tell us why.  but for camera error, you can try refreshing firmware a few times in a row, maybe a module didnt properly update in a firmware update..   .500 was problematic initially some of us it didnt update everything internally first time around..  
other than all of this, you may have a defective mavic air, if firmware refreshing doesnt solve the camera issue probably somethign wrong with your drone..

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-14 20:24
well for the wifi related issues flying over a neighborhood or city area is obviously going to dramatically kill range because alot of wifi around and wifi bubbles reflecting around.. that seems normal, as does signal issues in dense wooded area like a timberland as again wifi is sensitive to errors in data which can get very technical but short answer is trees partially blocking signal means increase in error rate of data means decrease in useable bandwidth...  overall, sorta expected with wifi based systems, lesser issue with Occusync and lightbridge because they can use partial data frames and accept higher error rates.

2nd  you mentioned early as soon as you move forward signal is decreased...  do you mean literally the moment you move forward it drops signal quality and strength or a few hundred feet/thousand feet.  this is what i was curious about if the moment you move forward it drops signal this could mean have an issue with mavic air's antenna or antennas..   do you have the front landing legs folded down..?if folded up they are incorrectly polarized and can suffer a instant drop in signal..

The signal drops the moment I move the control stick forward.  My flight area is rather clear of trees and obstructions.  The clear cut up on the ridge is where I usually fly too when I'm going long distance.  The middle of the cut it 1 mile, the top of the ridge is over 6000 ft.  Right now I can't even get to the cut area.  My house sits up on a hill and has a clear shot to the cut if I walk down my driveway about 100 ft.

Twistedlarch Posted at 1-15 05:36
The signal drops the moment I move the control stick forward.  My flight area is rather clear of trees and obstructions.  The clear cut up on the ridge is where I usually fly too when I'm going long distance.  The middle of the cut it 1 mile, the top of the ridge is over 6000 ft.  Right now I can't even get to the cut area.  My house sits up on a hill and has a clear shot to the cut if I walk down my driveway about 100 ft.

[view_image]

Assuming you got the front antennas (feet)  folded out of the drone and you are not leaving them folded up, Something wrong with your aircraft or remote if the moment you move the aircraft forward it suffers some signal loss.  

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-15 08:42
Assuming you got the front antennas (feet)  folded out of the drone and you are not leaving them folded up, Something wrong with your aircraft or remote if the moment you move the aircraft forward it suffers some signal loss.

I think I have the issue figured out.  After all four of my batteries started giving me the "Low Battery Warning" at about 80-90% full I decided to uninstall and reinstall the DJI Go4 app.  All batteries seem to be fine now and I was able to take it out almost a mile before I started to get signal issues (cloudy day).


Brian